NISA has drafted approval to extend the lifespan for reactor #2 at Kansai Electric Power Company’s (KEPCO) Mihama plant in Fukui Prefecture. The reactor will be 40 years old in July. A bill to restrict the age of reactors to 40 years except in “exceptional circumstances” is currently moving through the Diet, but has not yet been passed. Experts, including Hiromitsu Ino, Professor Emeritus of Materials Science at the University of Tokyo, expressed criticism of NISA’s move, in light of the fact that the proposed Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not yet been established. “It is not appropriate for NISA to conclude that the extension is ok. That decision should only be given after a new nuclear regulatory agency is set up.” In addition, analysts point out that KEPCO has yet to submit stress test results on the reactor to NISA, in spite of the fact that they are legally required to do so in order to restart reactors.

TEPCO is finalizing its in-house report on what happened during last year’s nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, just in time for its annual shareholders’ meeting on June 27. Contrary to interim reports released by the government and a private, independent organization, TEPCO’s report will reportedly deny all responsibility for the disaster, saying that the crisis could not be helped and its response was appropriate. Conversely, the government and private reports state that workers lacked knowledge and skills that could have prevented the hydrogen explosions that led to three nuclear meltdowns. In addition, the utility insists that the plant experienced no damage whatsoever as a result of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck last March. In the meantime, former TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu will testify this week before the Diet regarding the disaster, as controversy continues to swirl around whether or not TEPCO tied to evacuate all of its employees from the plant as the disaster was unfolding. Had they done so, the crisis would have been far more catastrophic.

Former New York State Mayor Ed Koch is speaking out about the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and warning US citizens about nuclear power and the government’s response: “The American public should learn from the Japanese nuclear meltdown at Fukushima. The Japanese government did not tell its people the truth about the need for evacuation and other dangers, and I believe that no government, including our own, will [not do so] under similar circumstances, because a nuclear catastrophe is so great that the government is at a loss on how to deal with it. So they will lie to gain time within which they can, hopefully, come up with a coherent policy of survival. Our government should have learned from Chernobyl and Fukushima that nuclear energy plants are currently too dangerous to continue, and the existing plants should be shut down.”

Is anybody surprised that TEPCO will deny any wrong doing in the Fukushima disaster? Good for ex- mayor Koch speaking out against nuclear power. I truly believe that the U.S. Would not do a much better job if we were in the same situation as Japan. Thank you Greenpeace.

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(Unregistered) Robert
says:

It is time to accept the fact we have extended the sustainability of the natural environment and maintenance of the built environment requires energy,...

It is time to accept the fact we have extended the sustainability of the natural environment and maintenance of the built environment requires energy, infrastructure, and agriculture beyond the natural design of our planet. With our species' progress there comes great power, expense, and responsibility. However, Hoping, wishing, whining, and bitching about the condition of our environment in the wake and reality of the demand to sustain our growing population is fruitless. There are far more effective leans of effectuating environmenta justice, social justice, and economic justice. The blame game only distracts from tje hard cold truth. We are all culpable.

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(Unregistered) Beppe
says:

According to TV Asahi the "no return rule" has been already watered down as it will not be applied for the first 5 years (if I understood co...

According to TV Asahi the "no return rule" has been already watered down as it will not be applied for the first 5 years (if I understood correctly) and another body, whose members are controlled by ghe goverment and METI, will be able to interfere with the newly created NRC.
The nuclear lobby is in full swing and the citizens opinion is being trumpled over as I have never seen before in Japan.
I wish the people of Japan will be able to make its voice heard and demand a referendum on the nuclear policy of its country.
Japan cannot afford another Fukushima. Remember that Fukushima 2 barely escaped the fate of Fukushima 1, that all the other npps in Tohoku have been damaged by the same quake and that the Niiigata earthquake crippled the Kariwa plant for two years. How many more times do we you want to try your luck?